Occupational challenges in nursing: a qualitative study from Bangladesh

Nursing is one of the most challenging professions in healthcare as nurses face numerous challenges while delivering healthcare services in hospitals. The study aimed to explore the occupational challenges faced by nurses and the coping strategies to address those challenges in Bangladesh. Eighteen registered nurses and nursing supervisors working in the four selected secondary and tertiary hospitals in Satkhira district of Bangladesh were recruited in this study. Data were collected during December 2021 by employing in-depth interview and key informant interview methods to understand the challenges nurses faced from diverse perspectives. Data saturation point was achieved at the 18th interview, and we discontinued the data collection process as no new information has come out. Findings revealed that nurses are going through a variety of challenges in their workplace ranging from dealing with excessive workloads and mental stress, working night shifts, experiencing misbehavior of patients’ families, receiving low wages, and lacking coordination with doctors and authorities. Due to these occupational challenges, nurses could not concentrate on their jobs, sometimes misbehaved with patients, and felt stressed. They followed different coping strategies such as self-control and self-motivation, sometimes shared with their colleagues, families, and friends to lessen stress to some extent. We recommend recruiting sufficient skilled nurses in hospitals, increasing salaries by 30%, introducing night shifts and risk allowances, and fostering better coordination among the health personnel, authorities, and patients’ families could be effective in ensuring a better working environment for the nurses and better healthcare services delivery for the patients.